US authorities have named the suspect linked to the fatal shooting of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has filed an arrest detainer for 25-year-old Jose Medina-Medina, who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
He has since been charged with one felony count of first-degree murder, one felony count of attempted first-degree murder, three felony counts of aggravated assault/discharge of a firearm, and one felony count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.
Chicago police revealed the charges against Medina on Sunday (US time) after previously withholding the suspect’s identity, saying that they were questioning a person of interest. The recent developments in the case come after 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman was shot last Thursday while she walking with her friends near the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach at Pratt Boulevard to see the Northern Lights.
About Jose Medina: Loyola University student shooting suspect
According to the DHS, Medina is a Venezuelan migrant living in the US illegally. Homeland Security officials revealed that the shooting suspect has a criminal history and has been in the US since 2023.
In a news release published on Sunday, DHS said that it had called on sanctuary politicians not to release Jose Medina, who was previously released from custody after an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago.
The accused was previously apprehended by the US Border Patrol and released into the country under the ex-President Joe Biden’s administration. While his initial arrest happened on May 9, 2023, months later on June 19, 2023, he was released again after an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois, according to the DHS.
Jose Medina is scheduled to appear in a US court for a detention hearing on Monday, March 23.
Why did Jose Medina target Sheridan Gorman?
While the investigation is ongoing, police’s preliminary findings suggested that the shooting was random. The Chicago student was struck in the head near a Rogers Park beach. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Chicago Ald. Maria Hadden (49th Ward) said the incident seemed to be a a case of Sheridan Gorman being “at the wrong place at the wrong time..”
According to Chicago police and a Loyola campus safety alert cited by US reports, a masked mas approached Sheridan and her friends and started shooting in their direction last Thursday.
Before studying at Loyola University Chicago, Gorman graduated from Yorktown High School in Yorktown, Westchester County in New York, last year.
Her family released a statement before authorities revealed the charges against Medina, saying that she was doing “something entirely normal… in an area where she had every reason to feel safe.”
“There was nothing unusual about her being there. There was nothing that should have placed her in harm’s way,” the family added, as quoted by CBS News. “This was not inevitable. This was a choice. And our daughter paid the price for it.”